| POETRY CURRENTS | |
MUSELETTER GOES LA & BEYOND
Welcome to the SoCal poetry scene. I want to wish my buddy Victor Infante our best as he moves back to New England. I will do my best to take care of your guys in Orange County, Victor. Please send venue info and po news directly to me at muse@poetix.net.
At the top of the news is the recent National Poetry Slam in Seattle. I am sure there will be ample coverage from others but I would just like to congratulate the SoCal teams who participated. Kudos to you guys.
This has been a brutal summer hot-hots day-and-night weather and poetry. SoCal has benefited from a number of touring poets this summer including The Morrigan, the Ignition Tour, and Thea Hillman. It never ceases to amaze me how hard many poets work to improve their poetry. Aside from the regulars we see weekly in our local venues, these folks that tour steadily get better every year.
AND NOW FOR THE NEWS... POETRY VENUE BLUES
Two key venues will soon be disappearing from the SoCal scene. Emma Rosenthal is shutting down The Word Delicious poetry series that has been an important part of the San Gabriel poetry scene for the last couple of years. Emma is moving on to some other projects and we wish her well. And our good friend Jaimes Palacio has terminated Penguins Hooked On Macaronics, his infamous Monday night Santa Ana reading.
PENGUIN BOY LANDS AT OC WEEKLY
On the plus side, Jaimes will be taking over Victor’s poetry picks column in the Orange County Weekly. It would be great if he could get information from poetry hosts in the area about upcoming features or out of town poets visiting OC: a short bio, maybe some examples of the featured poet's work and a picture. Send them as attachments to penguinboy88@hotmail.com. Include the date and venue information. No promises or guarantees (the editor may not run his pick, etc...), but he will do what he can to get new voices noticed, at least in Orange County.
TUESDAY NIGHTS ARE MONDAYS NOW
Long-time San Gabriel Valley host, publisher and poet Don Campbell has moved his successful Tuesday night readings to Mondays. (I think he just wants to come out to pl@zen. :) The readings take place in beautiful downtown Alhambra at the Joslyn Center's Prado Room, 210 N. Chapel Avenue. Upcoming features include:
- August 13th - Ryan Oba
- August 20th - Buddy Wakefield
- August 27th - Greg Lamas
SISTA C FLIES HIGH WITH A POETIC SOARING CELEBRATION
Sista C of Redondo Beach & the world will host a Poetic Soaring Celebration on Saturday September 15, with workshops, performances, open mike and a poetic showdown/showcase of spoken word artists and musicians. It's Angel's Gate Cultural Arts Center (Bldg. H), up the hill from the Korean Bell in San Pedro, off S. Gaffey Street, in the artist studios area from 10:30 am -10 pm. They will have workshops for new and seasoned poets to increase their skill in doing: poetry with drumming, poetry with song/singers, poetry with dance, poetry with drama/story/theatrical purpose, poetry with a healing/nurturing/spiritual purpose. ($10 per workshop or get a day pass for $30). In the evening, celebrate Sista C's birthday with a poetry & music party featuring a reading/performance by Sista C (Charlotte Ferrell) from her newest WordBeat poetry CD and book, From Pillows to Pillars. Vendor booths are available for book and tape sales. Contact Sista C directly: lasistac@flash.net or 323.882.4938.
NEW COMRADES DEBUTS
One of my favorite online publications is Comrades, edited by the oh so skillful Verian Thomas (editor@comrade.org.uk) with the notoriously vivacious and museful Claudine Moreau as poetry editor. You can find the new issue on the Comrades Web site.
OLD BUDDY, NEW READING
Rafael F. Alvarado (Rfja7@aol.com), poet and host in la la land, will be hosting a new monthly reading at Phil’s Virtual Office Cafe.com, 1911 N. Hillhurst Avenue, 323.668.0310. The first reading/opening will feature the art work of Giulio Costanzo and poetry by Steve Abee & Iris Berry with musical accompaniment by Tony Malone & music by Pudding. Saturday, August 25 from 6 - 8 pm.
KILLER POETRY STAYS ALIVE
Killer Poetry is hosted by Amelie Frank at the renowned Mysteries, Movies & Mayhem Bookstore, 14925 Magnolia Blvd. (at Kester) in Sherman Oaks, 818.905.9191. Admission is free! 7 pm open reading sign-ups, reading kicks off at 7:30 pm. Urgent note: Please support our bookstore! Mysteries, Movies & Mayhem needs your patronage! Features:
- August 23rd - Buddy Wakefield & Imani Toliver
- September 6th - Cecilia Woloch & Michael C. Ford
TWO IDIOTS PEDDLING POETRY AT THE UGLY MUG CAFFE IN ORANGE
(I didn’t write this headline!) The hosts from what used be Dragon Poetry have done a Clark Kent and changed into superpoheroes! Ben Trigg and Steve Ramirez have undergone very specialized operations and have remerged as, well... as Two Idiots Peddling Poetry. They say their recent regenderization is due to an effort to refocus their roles in the poetic community. Steve and Ben promise that you will still get all the great stuff they have been bringing to the great city of Orange every week (drinks from the Ugly Mug, open mike, amazing features, Steve's bantering) -- they’re just working on making it an even better show. Plus, the dynamic duo are busting out with a new and improved Web site: poetryidiots.com, full of all kinds of neat things, including in-depth info on upcoming features. They hope to see you at the Ugly Mug Caffe soon: 261 North Glassell (1.5 blocks north of the Orange Circle), Orange, California.
EVER BEEN TO A LIT RAVE?
LitRave is a group of LA poets and spoken word artists who throw offbeat poetry readings, literary salons, and other strange goings on. Formed in March 2001 by Frankie Drayus, Cindy Bailey, and Wayman Barnes, LitRave has become a part of the LA performance poetry and spoken word scene and reports on and reviews all the various open mics on their Web site. They are currently looking for people to help them with this onerous chore. ;) So if you see a great reading, hear a poem that really touched you or made you laugh, want to share your insights about the world at large, or need to ramble on about yourself and your love of the written word, they would love for you to write to them about it. They would also go gaga (their words) if you joined them at future LitRave events.
THE MISSING LIZZIE WANN PAPERS
Well, she really isn’t missing, nor are her papers. That headline just seemed like a good way to tell you about my San Diego pal Lizzie Wann. Lizzie's CD A Wing & A Prayer was recently reviewed in the San Diego Reader by Richard Meltzer. She has been hosting a kind of music and poetry salon (it defies definition) in her living room as of late. Check out her Web site Meeting Grace, and hear her on mp3.com.
COFFEE CARTEL INVOLVED IN POETRY TAKE OVER
Hosted by Larry Colker (larry@redondopoets.com), the Redondo Poets reading at Coffee Cartel has a delightful cadre of features and poets. Check out their Web site for the latest information and join them on Tuesday, August 14 when Larry Schulz features. Their open reading begins at 8:15 pm. Coffee Cartel is located at 1820 S. Catalina, Redondo Beach, 310.316.6554 or 310.548.5344.
RAPP SALOON REOPENS ITS DOORS
Now that the renovations are completed, Pete Justus has restarted his weekly poetry series. Here are the specs: Friday nights at Rapp Saloon with sound provided by Gary Justice (cohosting), open mic + feature, 7:30 sign up, 8:00 start at the International Youth Hostel, Santa Monica, 1436 2nd Street, just north of Broadway (look for the old brick building on the west side). Heather Long featured August 10; on August 17 it will be James Gautier.
THE BIG DAMN POETRY SLAM MARCHES ON
This year's Nationals may be over, but you will still find the competition hot and heavy in Long Beach on Sunday afternoons. Victor is gone, but new hosts are there to serve up the poetic perfection. The lovely & talented Mindy Nettifee and our adorable beat-droppin' DJ Ryan Hammill are the new hosts, along with Paul Suntup. Upcoming featured readers:
- August 19th - Jack McCarthy & Buddy Wakefield
- August 26th - Bitter Love Poem Slam & feature TBA
- September 1st - 1st Qualifying Slam & Tatiana Simonian
PL@ZEN CELEBRATES POETRY EVERY WEEK
Okay, so this is a shameless plug for my venue, PoeticLicense. But we (Donn Deedon, Brandon Backhaus and I) are about to go into our 7th year at this and well, we just keep rolling. Steve Edelson, owner of Zen Restaurant, has been a generous space provider and the theatre is undergoing incredible renovations to make it even better. This week we featured two terrific poets, Eric Von Mizener from OC and the absolutely wonderful Indran Amirthanayagam. What a night! Upcoming features include:
- August 14th - Celia Homesley & Catherine Daly
- August 21st - Alyssa Burrows & Salina Saliva
- August 28th - Monica Lee Copeland
SKYLIGHT BOOKS DOES PO
On Sunday, August 19th at 4 pm there will be a poetry reading by the fine poets in Laurel Ann Bogen's master class at Skylight Books, 1818 N Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz (Los Angeles), 323.660.1175.
CALLING ALL POETS
On Saturday afternoon, October 13th, Beyond Baroque is calling all poets throughout Southern California to pose for a group photo to document the community. Photographer Mark Savage, who is finishing his documentary series of portraits of Los Angeles poets, will take the group photo in front of Beyond Baroque (which, by the way, sports brand-spanking-new, drought-resistant, donated landscaping -- and it's gorgeous!). They want all of SoCal's poets there, so that we can document the community for posterity and mark its tremendous range and size.
MAGIC POETRY
Magic Johnson's Starbucks presents an Urban Folk Collective Production spreading love-n-spoken words, hosted by Sandra Laraine Coleman, Alice The Poet and MsTmusze with Musical Director Victor “X-man” Taylor, at 5301 Centinela Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 310.338.1297. The event is held every Wednesday at 7 pm. and consists of an open mic and featured performers. Open mic sign-ups begin at 6:45 pm. Please contact Sandra Laraine Coleman (blessedrwe1@aol.com), Alice The Poet (AliceThePoet@aol.com) or MsTmusze (mstmusze@speakonit.org) for more info.
DA POETRY LOUNGE HOTTER THAN EVER
Returning 2nd place Nationals slam team members Poetri and Shihan run their incredible venue Da Poetry Lounge at the Greenway Court Theater, 544 N. Fairfax Avenue, LA, Tuesday nights at 9 pm, 213.390.7072.
